A Special Brew: Magical Potions, an Evil Shadow, Tea-Leaf Fortune Telling

This book is great and is sure to be loved by YA readers and fans of YA literature. The author's choice of words are as special as the finest blends of aromatic loose tea, transporting readers into the world of the daughter narrating her family story after the death of her mother. There are teas with "the honey taste of optimism," teas that smell like apple blossoms and create a soft drone of bees among fields of flowers. Everything seems very lyrical, but there also is a palpable sense of forboding. Ning, the first-person-narrator daughter, fears her father's wrath; there's a memory of a broken tea cup and a dark stain, tea that warned of a still birth. More frightening is the worsening cough of second sister Shu, and the narrator's knowledge that the poison will take Shu's life just as it did the mother's. Despite the fact that Father, Dr. Zhang, is a physician with access to the best medicines, nothing is helping Shu. In fact, Shu would not even be alive at this point if Mother had not used her last ounce of strength to brew a tonic for Shu. Sadly, the tea that killed Mother and sicked Shu was brewed by the narrator, who ignored the image of a snake that appeared in her cups of tea.

The underlying fear is quickly established as a very real danger. There are poisoned blocks of tea and an evil known as The Shadow. Attacks on the narrator begin as early as page 12. And Dr. Zhang, a man who tries to help less fortunate people, is considered a nemesis by black-cloaked Governor Wang. Meanwhile Ning must travel alone to the capital city for a magician's tea competition.

Although A MAGIC STEEPED IN POISON is a series, the 384 page book seems to be thoroughly enjoyable as a stand-alone novel.